


Depths of Devotion

by GemmaRose



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Concussions, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 19:25:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12239175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: In Which Marinette Realises How Long Adrien Has Loved Her





	Depths of Devotion

**Author's Note:**

> So, I saw the [S2 trailer](http://paganinpurple.tumblr.com/post/165869096529/) and had to scribble this out to handle my feels.

It strikes her, as she’s lying probably-concussed on the pavement, that she’s seen him like this before. The thought flits away as soon as it presents itself, and a minute later she’s trusting Tikki’s luck to let her catch the akuma her partner has freed from the victim’s vintage handheld game. She flings her lucky charm skywards, and sags into Chat’s arms as the rosey magic rights the akuma’s wrongs. Chat carries her home afterwards despite her protests that she can walk on her own, dropping to street level just before his transformation wears off. She waves off her parents’ concerns with a white lie, she’s already texted Alya complaining about a headache so there’s someone to corroborate her story, and Adrien follows her up to her room with cookies for Tikki.

She’s not sure if it’s a testament to Adrien’s character or her parents’ trust when she wakes up to see him lying on her rug, a copy of Un sac de billes open on the floor in front of him that he’s ignoring in favor of checking the cat app he’s had on his phone since high school. Plagg is lounging on the open pages, tiny body sprawled in a way that suggests Adrien has been ignoring the book for a while now. Marinette smiles and shifts slightly under her blanket, careful not to disturb Tikki on the edge of her pillow.

It’s still startling, sometimes, how different he is as Adrien and as Chat Noir. In both identities he’s her partner, the boy she trusts more than anyone else, but she can’t imagine Adrien placing himself between her and an akuma the way Chat has so many times. Nor can she imagine Chat Noir behaving long enough for a full photoshoot like the ones Adrien participates in on a regular basis. Her eyes drift shut, and an image flashes across the backs of her eyelids. Chat lunging at the akuma of the week with a look of pure rage on his face, Cataclysm glowing in his right hand.

She frowns, thinking back to today’s fight and trying to pin down when she’d seen him so enraged. He’d been angry when the akuma targeted Juleka, crouched in front of her with his arms spread and teeth bared in a way that evokes the image of a bristling alley cat. That’s normal, though; they both hate when akuma target bystanders. The expression she’s remembering, that’s something else entirely. Something that’s unsettlingly, viscerally familiar.

After she was thrown, Marinette realizes with a start, her eyes sliding open to stare down at the blond boy sprawled lazily on her bedroom floor. That was right after she put her lucky charm to use, and the akuma’s flailing sent her flying backwards into a lamppost. Her memories of what happened right after that are fuzzy, probably due to the same impact that has the back of her head still smarting even now, but if she focuses...

Chat had screamed, when she hit the pole; a raw, agonised thing that makes her chest ache just to remember. Then the akuma had lashed out at him, and he had turned to it and activated Cataclysm and- Marinette’s breath catches in her throat as she finally puts a word to the expression. Murderous. Chat had looked murderous, and the last time she saw him willing to kill had been when he was under the effects of Dislocoeur’s arrow. She frowns, watching as Adrien changes apps and starts scrolling through facebook.

She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but in hindsight it’s more than a little odd how strongly he reacted. Social media had been flooded with the reactions of that particular akuma’s victims after they restored Kim to himself, and most of those threads had been archived on the Ladyblog. There had been burnt pictures, aired secrets, defaced mementos, but no reports of attempted bodily harm. Alya had theorised that the arrows didn’t amplify feelings but simply changed them, love to hate, positive to negative, like flipping a switch. Akuma have a single power, so why, when Chat took that arrow for her, had he not gone and defaced or destroyed the posters of Ladybug around town?

Unless-

Unless the other people Dislocoeur had hit, couples engaged and married and devoted for life, hadn’t felt as strongly. She thinks back to the incident with the zookeeper, how Chat had hugged her so tightly after she emerged from the T-Rex’s mouth, how his voice had hitched like the start of a sob when he said her name, how he’d stuck closer to her for the next few fights. And that had been before they even knew each other, outside their masks. Before she’d been willing to trust him with everything, to put her life in his hands both as Ladybug and as Marinette.

She sits up, shrugging off her blanket, and descends from her bed on silent feet. Adrien looks up as she approaches, and pushes himself upright with a blinding smile. “Feeling better?” he asks, setting his phone facedown on the open book.

“A bit.” she grins back, unable to resist in the face of his infectious happiness. “I have a question, though.” she says, voice soft as she kneels next to him and leans on his shoulder.

“I’m all ears, M’lady.” Adrien’s arm slips around her waist, hand coming to rest lightly on her hip.

“This is going to sound silly, but...” she chews on her lower lip for a second, then sighs and nuzzles into his shoulder. “How long ago did you fall in love with me?”

“Hmm...” Adrien rubs at her side absently, holding her close. “How long ago was our first day of school together?”

“I’m being serious!” Marinette sits up, shoving at his shoulder.

“So am I.” Adrien smiles at her, the soft little one that only comes out when they’re alone together. “When you faced down the swarm of akuma and told Hawkmoth to fuck off-”

“I did _not_.”

“You kinda did.” Adrien chuckles. “But right after that, when you captured the whole swarm and then released them and fixed the whole city?” he takes her hands, his fingers calloused and familiar. “That’s when I knew I loved you. How could I not?”

“Stop it.” Marinette grins, looking away as her cheeks warm.

“Well, when did you realize you loved me?” Adrien asks, and Marinette studies the rug under them.

“The same day.” she mumbles. Adrien laughs, and she punches him gently in the ribs. “Shut up! All the tabloids painted you as a bratty rich kid child model, and then you turned around and- and- how was I _supposed_ to react when I found out you’re as nice as Chloe is mean?”

Adrien laughs again, and pulls her in for a gentle kiss. “And in the mask?” he teases when they part.

“I’m not sure.” she admits. “It just, snuck up on me.”

“I know when I realised I loved you outside the mask.” Adrien frees one of his hands from hers, brushing some of her loose hair behind her ear.

“Was it when we kissed and I turned back into me?” Marinette teases. Adrien looks away, lips pressed shut, but his blush answers for him. She laughs, and presses a kiss to his jaw. “It’s alright, Kitty. I’m sorry it took me so long to notice.”

“You don’t have to apologise.” Adrien curls his free hand around the back of her neck, his impossibly green eyes warm and soft in a way that puts her completely at ease. “It’s not like I was exactly blatant about it.”

“I still should’ve known. Ever since Dislocoeur, I should’ve known.” Marinette smiles and lifts her free hand to rest on his forearm. “Just think, we could’ve been dating almost twice as long if I wasn’t so dense.”

“But then you wouldn’t be Marinette.” Adrien says, pulling her in so their foreheads touch. “And I wouldn’t’ve had half as much time to fall in love with you before making it official.”

“Did you really need any more time, though?” she asks, keeping her eyes on his shirt. “Even that first Valentine’s, you loved me so much that Dislocoeur was able to make you-”

She’s silenced by Adrien’s lips on hers, soft and insistent, and exhales heavily through her nose.

“I hate thinking about that.” Adrien murmurs when they part. “The idea that Hawkmoth could’ve made me hurt you, that I almost-”

“But you didn’t.” Marinette lifts a hand to cup his cheek, stopping him before he can talk himself into a mood. “And we’ve never seen an akuma with a repeat power, so nobody else will ever be able to use your love to make you hurt me, or anyone else.”

Adrien smiles, leaning into her touch, and Marinette’s chest aches with the well of affection that fills it. She really, truly hopes that they never have to face an akuma with Dislocoeur’s powers again. She doesn’t want to know what would happen if they managed to hit her.


End file.
